EARTHQUAKES 1, GALAXY 0: San Jose's late goal is enough in Western Conference semifinal opener

CARSON - For the Galaxy, it's down to do or die against the team that refuses to die.

If it can be called a dominating performance without actually scoring, the Galaxy earned at least that much but it meant nothing when San Jose's sudden specialty stunned them with a goal in the 94th minute Sunday night at Home Depot Center.

The Earthquakes' 1-0 victory, achieved on their ninth second-half stoppage-time goal of the season, sends the two-leg series to Northern California for Wednesday's Game2. The Galaxy have to either outscore San Jose by at least two goals or by one and win a penalty-kick shootout.

San Jose defender Victor Bernardez, given a free kick after the Galaxy disputed a foul called on midfielder Marcelo Sarvas, continued the Earthquakes' late-game magic when his low shot from about 30 yards away deflected between defenders Omar Gonzalez and Tommy Meyer.

It threw off goalkeeper Josh Saunders just enough. Saunders, diving to his left, got a lot of the ball but it trickled underneath him and into the net.

The sellout crowd, save for a sliver of San Jose fans, went silent.

"Basically you're trying to see the wall, the ball goes through the wall, deflects with a weird spin," Saunders said. "You're trying to react based on what's happening in front of you. My play is unacceptable. I'll take the blame for the goal.

"It's tough, but we have another game. You have to bounce back from it. It shows true character if you can come back and win this game and especially for myself, to put a good performance on the field."

The Galaxy controlled possession all night, although their finishing in front of the goal left them high and dry.

Their best chance came in the 86th minute. Midfielder Mike Magee brought the ball up on the side and sent it to Landon Donovan, who made a move to his left before leaving it for Robbie Keane with a back-heel pass.

Keane took a couple of strides and struck it toward the upper corner of the goal, but it bounced off the crossbar.

"I thought it was in but it wasn't to be, so never mind," Keane said. "It's up to us to show some character. We've done it before, we're certain to do it again.

"We know we can score goals against everybody."

They'll have to against a team that has had an uncanny season.

In addition to the injury-time goals, San Jose scored 15 times in the final 15 minutes of games. And Sunday, they did it without the league's leading scorer, Chris Wondolowski, getting only one harmless shot on goal.

"It was never a game you'd think we would lose," Donovan said. "It was kind of one fluke play and we were a little unlucky.

"We probably weren't sharp enough in the offensive third of the field, but at worst we thought we'd go up there 0-0 and at worst have to get a goal. Now it looks like we've got to get two, but it's not over. We've played well there twice this year and there's no reason why we can't win there."

The fates, and the whistle of referee Ricardo Salazar, played a part.

As the team's appeared destined for a deadlock, San Jose's Simon Dawkins played a ball in the middle of a field. Sarvas, on Dawkins' right, came around Dawkins and appeared to cleanly kick the ball out of harm's way. Salazar called a foul.

"No foul," said Galaxy coach Bruce Arena, who confronted Salazar after the game. "If that's a foul in this game, then there's 100 fouls."

Sarvas couldn't believe it.

"It wasn't a foul," Sarvas said softly. "He had the ball, I just came around him, and blocked his pass. But it doesn't matter.

"It's painful, you know. We were around the goal 90 minutes and to see the goal in the last minute is hard."

It was the fourth time the teams have met this season and the Galaxy still are looking for their first win. Twice, they had two-goal leads and lose. In a 2-2 in the most recent meeting, the Galaxy led twice before being forced to settle for a 2-2 tie.

"We have to do the same. We had many good moments in this game," Sarvas said. "We created some good chances, we had the ball a lot. We have to do the same.